It Happened on Vashon

My Vashon Island life, chronicled on and off since 2006. Family, friends, travel, open water swimming, chickens, honeybees, foraging, growing stuff, practicing PR. A very good life in a beautiful Pacific NW setting.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Twain nailed it.

"The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow."
-Mark Twain

This statement is so profoundly true. When you've come through a lot, you understand how to laugh, how to find peace, how to appreciate peace, and put things in perspective. There's something also very liberating in just getting out the pain. I'm not alone or unique here. That's a fact.

There will be experiences shared here that are not always easy for others to read. But the writing will not stop, and the truths and emotions that flow out do not end until I do. Sorry not sorry.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Training TRX stylee

This month I started personal training at CoreCentric on the island. As in, I'm a disciple getting my ass handed to me in the kindest way by the nicest trainer in the world. Our first day was a get-to-know and evaluation on camera in which I threw myself into a series of lunges on command...which would be felt for two days after! The full training that has followed hit other muscle groups.

What's really cool about this training is that if you have shredded knees, like those I inherited, this is low impact strength and balance work that isn't going to hurt in the joints. As a later-in-life athlete doing a lot of open water swimming, it's important to mix up the muscle groups worked and also stretch; this accomplishes that in spades. Not only am I getting a ton of core work and glute-slaying, my coach is big on body balance and alignment. Being blind on my left side since birth and having spinal cord deficits led to habits on my posture/weight distribution/lean of which I'm now being made vigilant.

Two years of one-on-one training previously done at Seattle Athletic Club was great a couple years ago, but the drill was much more traditional grunt style, where you're running stairs, jumping up on boxes, tethering feet/ankles with resistance bands to do torture squats across the floor. My knees screamed silently each session, although the over all results were amazing after several months. In this new program at CoreCentric, I'm convinced that over the winter I'll see the same benefits but with less of the knee agony. It's nice getting back to "dryland" training. Let the planks recommence!

So let's see what this 47-year-old can do. Get stronger, more flexible, cut another minute or two off my swim mile, learn butterfly stroke, and swim a 10k (which is on the docket for Dec 23!). Between year-round open water swimming, random weekly Vashon Athletic Club visits (joined the Rockfins for my 2017 race season!), getting in a bike ride, and weekly training sessions at CoreCentric, it feels good to get moving, especially during these dark winter days. See you out there!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Dilworth to Glen Acres

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Friends don't let friends....

...post videos of others in the throes getting high, or even appearing to get high. It's been both disappointing and affirming all at once to spot these posts.

VARSA just circulated its annual community attitudes survey. I would LOVE to see the full findings, line by line for this year. There are so many great kids on this island, yet so many are just lost. These kids become adults, party hosts to the next round of young adults. Many of these in-limbo young adults dwell at home or couch-surf at the families of their friends. The tolerance level of parents on this island, according to past surveys, is pretty high. I'd add another large chunk are parents in complete and total denial that their kids drink, get high, or experiment with other drugs.

Obviously medical marijuana has been in WA for some time, and now recreationally legal for 21+, but now access seems easier for youth as pot shops abound.

As a teenager I experimented the smallest bit - and was that kid who got terrific grades. I tried weed once in high school, LSD over one boring summer in Boise at age 17, and speed in early college days - and I hated the way it made me feel, so there were NEVER drug habits. Mom's dad, my grandpa, was a doctor and pill samples were always around. When I awakened one night (I was 19) to my then-boyfriend sexually assaulting me, he excused his behavior to being wired and horny, so he just decided to help himself. Disgusting. Wrong. Meth. I come from a long line of drug and alcohol dependent family members and watched carefully as my sons came into adolescence for the signs I'd seen in people close to me.

There is so much I could say on this topic. Tests are cheap, people, buy them for your kids--and keep the door cracked open when you give them, making sure your kids are empty-handed on the way into the loo. There are hacks for everything, and unfortunately the only other way is in a doc's office and those are much pricier.

In some ways I'm glad kids are shamelessly putting their party footage out on the net, because it lifts the veil on widespread parental denial that their kids are doing "so great" while others called it.

About Me

North End Vashon Islander and mom to two awesome young men. Blissfully married to David, the multi-talented avenger. Making my own living, not spending other people's money. Living on Vashon Island, pop 10,000, land of lawyers, naturalists, artists, foodies, and so many backstories. Wanna read some?